In horticulture, i.e. the cultivation of flowering plants, leaf plants or vegetables, problems are encountered when the available growth area is limited. In practice, it is necessary to space the individual plants sufficiently with respect to the nutritive medium, i.e. the soil, to permit unimpeded root growth and a minimum of conflict between the roots of the plants for optimum growth.
The problem is especially pronounced in hothouse or enclosed cultivation of plants since, in this case, the heating of large areas creates problems with respect to energy cost and hence the cost per plant unit. It is, therefore, desirable to be able to cultivate a large number of plants in a given soil area or ground area since this reduces the cost per unit of plants for heating and hence the economy of such horticulture.
It has been proposed, for these reasons, to carry out plant culture on inclined planes. This has not been satisfactory heretofore since the pocketing of the ground or the terracing thereof by conventional techniques results in a compacting of the roots of the lower plants so that the latter tend to develop poorly. In addition, the roots of the adjacent plants tend to interfere with one another, again precluding optimum germination and growth.
It also may be mentioned that strawberry jars and like units have been provided heretofore with respective pockets, each receiving a plant, the jars being filled with a growth medium, e.g. soil or an artificial medium containing peat moss, soil, sand, perlite or vermiculite and the like. Such systems have also proved to be less than fully satisfactory because of the cost of the strawberry jar and because the units are incapable of providing a sufficient number of plants in a relatively small area.